Strange Omens
by D'AngelineHeroine13
Summary: Modern AU where Peeta has dreams of another life that takes him to compete in the Hunger Games with a beautiful girl he's never met before. Whoever the girl is, he knows she's in danger and as his dreams progress so does her dire situation. It's a race against time to find and save the love of his lives. Will have graphic depictions of violence in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Untitled AUHGFF

_'Here again?' _ Peeta thought to himself, as he stared at the odd woman on stage.

He saw this place, this crowd, this woman every night. He saw her painted lips moving at the microphone but couldn't hear her. Cameras were surrounding the crowd at all angles and a massive screen stood onstage, playing some strange footage. He glanced around; he didn't know any of these people...Oh! There, behind him, he saw his brothers standing in different groups. Why did they look so worried?...

There was a commotion to his right. His heart started pounding when his gaze rested on the girl in the middle of the foray. She was forcing herself between men in white uniforms. She was screaming but there was still no noise. How anyone could terrorize someone so beautiful was beyond Peeta's imaginings.

Finally the uniformed men parted and let the girl pass them. Peeta watched her walk toward the stage; she held her head high, the crowd kissed three fingers on their left hands and turned them toward her. Peeta followed suit even without knowing why, or what it meant. He just knew that he saw hope on the girl's face and wanted to be a part of it.

Looking at her face, knowledge suddenly swept over him. He knew every nuance of her expressions. He wasn't sure how but he knew that through her show of bravado, through the hope, the girl -no, _HIS_ girl!- was terrified. Confusion muddled his mind, until he realized everyone was staring at him. They all looked at him with pity and relief.

He looked to his brothers who were wide-eyed with surprise. Peeta watched the surprise fade to fear and...sadness? _What?_

Peeta glanced at the screen. It showed his confused face as he glanced around.

"Oh!" He had said it out loud, he was sure, but he heard nothing. _"It must be my turn to go up there," _he realized. Panic and fright flooded his system, though he had no idea why he was scared. He took a step to join his girl on the stage in front of a crowd of thousands.

Peeta jerked awake, sweat covered his body, His blonde hair was dark with it and his heart slammed in his chest from the terror still coursing through him.

"What a dream," he said to himself.

His voice seemed far too loud.


	2. Chapter 2

He was on a train. And he knew that girl was here somewhere with him so he went searching.

Before he could find her he suddenly found himself sitting at a table covered with decadent foods. He looked up to find three other people sitting in the room with him. The strangely dressed woman from the stage, a man and the girl. His heart beat faster when he saw her.

She was talking to the man and had a sneaking suspicion he had been too since his mouth was moving and they both looked at him. There was still no sound but the conversation continued. The girl was getting angry. He startled when he saw her nearly cut the mans fingers off and looked at her face. Again, it was like he knew what she was thinking and with a surety that astounded him, he knew she wouldn't have missed if cutting off fingers had been her goal.

He watched her look up to the other woman who was yelling something. Something that he felt was probably absolutely ridiculous and funny.

Then he was standing in a room, naked, surrounded by people who were yanking and pulling at various parts of his body, but he knew he shouldn't move. They were cutting his hair. They bathed him over and over again.

The people beautifying his body were dressed similarly to the woman from the stage. They're constant fawning over him was silly, but even without voices he thought he might like them.

Peeta was in his bed. After nearly two weeks the dreams had finally changed. It wasn't nearly as frightening as the other, but still just as strange. He was pretty sure he was dreaming of things that have never existed.

He tried to sleep again but knew it would be just as fruitless as sleeping after the other dreams. After only a quarter of an hour, Peeta got up to get yet another early start to his day.

Hours later at his bakery downtown, Peeta was talking to his best friend and business partner, Delly Cartwright. "I finally followed your advice," he said, while smashing dough against the countertop.

Delly looked up from the inventory lists she was checking and stared at him. "And which bit of advice did you decide to follow? I really hope it was the going a date bit I've been talking to you about. I know a really sweet girl-"

"I hired someone to take part of the workload from me. I'll start training him today. And no, I will not be going on any dates. Thank you." He smiled up at her, winking. "Wouldn't wanna take any time away from you, anyway."

Delly laughed but concern flooded her face as she really took a look at him. "Are you okay? You look...tired."

"Oh, thanks. That sounded exactly like _'You look like absolute crap,'_" he said, sarcasm and laughter lacing his voice. He began rolling out the dough to cinnamon and sugar for the cinnamon buns. They sold more of them than anything else and with his secret ingredient it didn't surprise him.

Delly put the clipboard and all her paperwork for the day on the counter and leaned over it to stare directly at his face. "What's going on?" she asked.

Peeta huffed at her. "Wow. I must really look terrible for you to express such con- Hey! Get off the counter! It has to be clean!"

Delly rolled her eyes and lifted herself and the papers away from his precious, still clean counter. "Don't change the subject. Tell me what's wrong with you. Now." She used her no nonsense voice and knew Peeta was more likely to listen to her when she applied it.

He stood up straight, and leaned away from the counter finally. He pulled his hands away from the dough and wiped his face, making a mental note to wash them before he touched the food again. "Alright. Fine. ...I've been having weird dreams for a while now so I've lost a little sleep. Not much, but it's been over the course of a couple weeks so I guess it's catching up to me." He smiled tiredly. "It'll be fine. I went to the doctor and they prescribed something to help suppress the dreaming." At her disapproving look he repeated, "It. Will. Be. Fine."

Peeta's new cashier was scheduled to come in soon now that the daily stock was filled and the small, carryout only diner was about to open. Peeta got the small amount of cash for change out of the safe to put in the register just as the bell over the back entrance rang out.

"I'm at the front," he called out. "Come on up, Rory, and we'll get you started at the register."

Rory hung his jacket up on one of the hooks by the back door and headed up toward his new employer with a joking smile on his face. "Don't people usually teach you how to cook before they start trusting you with their money?"

Peeta looked back and gave Rory a responding grin. "I'd trust a stranger with my money long before I trusted one with my recipes!"

Peeta and Rory got along well through the day and Rory did everything he could to make things easier on his new employer. He caught on quickly to computer's order system and cleaned during slow periods. He even brought in extra people in from the street out front when the diner was completely empty.

Since Delly always took care of the business side of things, Peeta was able to do nothing but cook all day. He was almost at a loss as to what to do with all that time but the break it gave his body was worth it. He must have been more tired than he realized; it just hadn't occured to him because he kept himself so busy at the diner.

After closing time, while Delly did closing paperwork and counted the profits from the register, Rory helped Peeta clean the kitchen. Conversation flowed easily, despite the four year age difference. In the two hours it took to get all the kitchen counters, floors and appliances cleaned the two almost felt like they'd been friends for much longer than a day.

"What are you and Delly doing tonight?" Rory asked after a rare lull in conversation. He was pulling his jacket on by the back door, Peeta was balancing two recycling bins to carry out and Delly was walking toward them from the office.

"Well," Peeta grunted with the effort of pulling them both off the floor, then said, "I have no idea what Delly is doing, but I'm going home for some much needed sleep." The end of his declaration found a can or two falling from the top bin.

Delly stooped to pick them up and smiled at Peeta, shook them in his face, then placed them back in the bin, more to the middle so they didn't fall again. She knew he wouldn't accept help, however, so she just left it at that.

"Sleep?" Rory asked, almost indignantly. "You're twenty-three and it's only nine on a weekend. Well, weekend for you since you're closed on Mondays. Delly," he said, turning to her and gesturing back at Peeta. "You convince the guy!" He dropped his hand and continued, "There's a small party at my girlfriend's house tonight. Kind of intimate, a couple of people your age, a few people ours,...only a few underage drinkers...but good music, good food -almost as good as yours, Peeta. Prim likes cooking fairly well. Oh, but don't tell her I said it wasn't quite as delicious as your food, Peet. She might not take it too well!" he laughed, no realizing how off topic he'd gotten.

Peeta and Delly just looked at each other, shaking their heads in good humor as Rory finally got his laughter under control and said "Well? You shouldn't miss it."

"I'll come," Delly finally said, shrugging her shoulders. "Afterall, I'm only twenty-three, it's only nine on a weekend for me..."

"See, Peeta?!" Rory exclaimed. "Your girl comes, you come." He smiled triumphantly. And the smile slowly faded as Peeta and Delly laughed uproarously at him. "You aren't dating are you?" he asked.

Delly met Rory's girlfriend, Prim and their friends and families. She was even asked on a date, something that hadn't really happened in quite some time. She was having a wonderful night.

At the same time, back in his apartment above the diner, Peeta was in bed. Despite his really trying not to and despite having taken the medication his doctor gave him, he succumbed to more strange dreams. And these dreams had him tossing and turning, crying out in his sleep. They didn't show much but they were filled with emotions. The flashes he got were of himself, the girl and more people he had never met before. They were all in a forest and he was scared. Every flash was confusing and terrifying. He woke in a sweat.

The dream repeated, never getting any clearer, for weeks.


End file.
